What is Love?
by yinkwun
Summary: "This story begins the day Severus calls Lily a 'mudblood', a xenophobic slur that irreparably damages their friendship forever." "With rage consuming her thoughts, Lily's fist came in contact with James Potter's face with a satisfying crack."


Co-written by babaganoosh (please check out her stories too!) and I.  
Neither she nor I own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does.

* * *

To most people, Lily Evans was a very intelligent and beautiful young lady. As such, she had a few admirers, despite her 'muggleborn' origin, in each house, even Slytherin. But to be honest, a small part of Lily desired very much for a low profile at Hogwarts; however, her fiery red hair and excellence in classes made her very difficult to miss.

Even after six years at Hogwarts, there were still times that Lily felt out of place. It was not that Lily disliked magic, in fact, she loved studying it. It was school and the people that she disliked. She was very kind, but due to the prejudice from pure blood families, the bullies from Slytherin would still often call her "Miss know-it-all Mudblood".

This was rather ironic as Lily's best friend was Severus Snape, a Slytherin. They were childhood friends. Severus, being a Slytherin, was slowly pushed into practicing dark arts and was slowly being poisoned into joining Voldemort, the rising dark lord of the 1970's. This story begins the day Severus calls Lily a 'mudblood', a xenophobic slur that irreparably damages their friendship forever.

* * *

She was furious. Extremely so. Lily stepped back from the scene, her eyes watering and her breath caught in her chest. She couldn't believe the foul words that slinked out of Severus's mouth. The crowd surrounding Lily, Snape, and his tormentors, the Marauders, went silent. James Potter, Lily's admirer and a Marauder, turned white with rage.

"You take that back Snivellus," James roared, "You're just a pathetic coward, who deserves everything he gets."

"Be QUIET," Lily yelled at James, "You're no better than he is for ganging up on him."

"In fact," Lily turned her eyes to the other three, "You're all as bad as he is."

Lily turned and walked away from them, trying to push through the crowd and barely holding back her tears. James, and the other three, Sirius Black, who was very good with the ladies, Remus Lupin, who was Lily's prefect counterpart, and Peter Pettigrew, a chubby pipsqueak with no backbone, turned their attention back to Severus.

"Well Snivellus," James sneered, "For making me look bad in front of Lily, why don't I make you look bad in front of everyone else?"

Severus, who was hanging upside down from a well casted Levicorpus, glared at them, refusing to speak. James mouth twisted into an ugly smirk as he flicked his wand downwards. With the flick, off came Severus's trousers, and the crowd started roaring with laughter.

Lily couldn't take Potter's antics anymore. Snape may have done something unforgivable, but who was Potter to stick his nose into her business? Had his mother not taught him manners? With rage consuming her thoughts, Lily's fist came in contact with James Potter's face with a satisfying crack. This was followed by horrified gasps from the "Potter girls", and even more laughter from the other three Marauders. Lupin, taking pity on James, strolled up to Potter and muttered a healing spell.

With a last glance at Severus's face, which had turned red with rage, Lily, sweet Lily, walked into the castle, not even looking back once.

Had she regretted hitting potter? No. But she understood that perhaps she shouldn't have made such a scene in one of the most populated areas in Hogwarts. That punch to James Potter's face became the talk of the year. She also received her first ever detention, slashing her squeaky clean record.

* * *

As Lily stared at her Head Girl badge, she sighed. 'Oh great, McGonagall just has to give me this role with huge responsibility.' She leaned back on her chair and thought, 'At least she thinks I'm a good student, which is a great compliment, Lily.' Lily continued reading the school letter and made a noise of outrage when she finally made sense of the words on the page. It read: "You will be sharing your Head Girl duties with the Head Boy. Professor Dumbledore has chosen James Potter as Head Boy after long and thoughtful consideration."

Lily always had great admiration for her headmaster, but this made her question his sanity. 'What?! How on EARTH did that bugger get chosen?! "Long and thoughtful", my arse!'

True, anyone could admit that Potter has a good academic standing and is a good seeker for the Gryffindor team, but his behaviour was absolutely horrid!

'Potter is probably grinning his face off and waving his badge at everybody. That ego of his is going to get a great boost.' She rolled her eyes at the thought. 'I'm going to be doing the work for two people." She falls back on her bed with an 'oof!', almost squishing Harry, her cat, and therefore receiving a shocked and angry noise of complaint from him.

This is going to be a year filled with headaches.

* * *

Please R & R!

-yinkwun and babaganoosh

.


End file.
